Sarah Lyons

Sarah Lyons is a stay at home wife and mother of six children, including 18 month old triplets. Using creative consequences with her kids has improved their behavior and encourages healthy relationships with each other.

Articles by Sarah

Providing extracurricular activities for your preschooler can encourage their natural curiosity and love of learning. It can also help them develop important skills like self-awareness, social development, language, and motor skills. There are countless classes and programs available through both Parks and Rec and private organizations for your child that are both fun and educational, but which activity is right for your child?

When children have the opportunity to serve in their community, they develop a desire to help others and make a difference. Not only do they become more aware of others who are less fortunate, they will learn to appreciate the blessings in their own lives. Kids who serve others are more likely to give of their time and treasures for a lifetime. When you choose a family service project, try to pick something that excites or interests your children because they are much more likely to become invested in the project. Here are some ideas to get you started.

Are you prepared if a disaster strikes? It isn’t my favorite question to consider but with children in the house it is good to ensure that my family is ready if fire, inclement weather, or worse affects our home and safety. How do you begin to prepare for the unexpected? Start with these simple tips:

When we think of Thanksgiving Day, delicious food, football, and getting together with family and friends come to mind. The original purpose of Thanksgiving was to show gratitude and give thanks for a bountiful harvest. Now as we celebrate Thanksgiving it is easy to get caught up in distractions like football games, Black Friday shopping, and the quest for the perfect meal and table settings. We tend to forget all about stopping to give thanks for all of our blessings.

Costumes, Halloween parties with sugary treats, trick-or-treating, and spooky decorations are fun and exciting for most kids, but for a child with Sensory Processing Disorder (SPD), Halloween celebrations can be very overwhelming.

Do your children have an interest in figuring out how things work? Do they enjoy experimenting with their surroundings? You may have a budding engineer, astronaut, mathematician or scientist on your hands. Even kids who are not naturally drawn to all things math and science enjoy exploring their environment and figuring out how they work. STEM, which stands for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math, are activities that engage kids of all ages in these specific areas.

If you are considering signing your child up for a team sport, but have reservations about the investment of your time and money, consider the benefits it can have for your child. Team sports provide the opportunity for your child to get some exercise and also provide the opportunity for social interaction and growth in their self confidence.

As our children grow, they will be faced with many difficult choices. Each choice they make will determine their success in school, friendships, and their future. Every parent’s goal is to raise kids who make smart decisions. So how do we begin to teach them to make good choices in the moment? The answer is by teaching them self control. Self control is defined as the ability to control oneself, in particular one’s emotions and desires, especially in difficult situations.

School mornings can be stressful for both parents and kids. The morning can be very hectic with limited time to eat breakfast, get dressed, gather belongings, and get to school on time. Here are some ideas for families to lower the stress and create a smoother school morning.

While the beginning of the school year is an exciting time and represents a new start, some kids may feel anxious about the unknown. A new teacher, new classmates, or a new school can cause a lot of stress and anxiety. Using some simple strategies, parents can help prepare their children for the first day and ease their concerns.

After the end of the school year excitement fades and the thrill of a trip to the pool wears off, I begin to notice the first signs of summer boredom settling in. The kids start to bicker, they seem to be drawn more to electronics and less to fun outings, and getting them to pitch in around the house is a chore in of itself. After checking the calendar and noting that the first day of school is still weeks away, something has to be done to battle the boredom.

As a parent, it can be hard to let them struggle through, or even fail at, experiences outside their comfort zone. However, those experiences develop confidence and independence which is valuable in raising children.

The dog days of summer have settled in and it’s too hot to play outside all day. This leaves the kids with lots of energy to burn. Here are 15 easy ways to entertain the kids and keep cool at the same time.

As the whirlwind of the last few weeks of school fly by, I find myself ready for the long, unscheduled days of summer. Sleeping in, spending our afternoons poolside, and playing hide and seek until the fireflies come out. Realistically, my idea of carefree summer days come from my youth and not from the summers our own kids typically experience.

Before becoming a parent, the idea of disciplining children seemed fairly straightforward. It follows logic that if you set limits, use consistency, and respond firmly, but lovingly, children will learn to correct their behavior. As I became a more experienced mother, I quickly learned that traditional methods of discipline, such as time out, do not work with every child, every time. Thinking outside of the traditional methods of discipline and trying new and creative consequences may improve behavior. Here are some ideas:

As a mother of six children, I have found myself comparing one child to another many times. Even though I know their physical, emotional, and intellectual development will progress at a rate that is unique to each child and each will have their own strengths and weaknesses, when you are in the middle of a two year old tantrum over a seemingly trivial problem, it is hard not to think “Your sister never did this.”

When I look back at each important moment in my life: the day I learned to drive, my graduation, my wedding, the birth of my first child, she is always standing in the background smiling and cheering me on.

The day your child was born is a day to celebrate and make them feel special. Birthday parties are fun but they can be a lot of work and the costs can quickly add up. If you decide to skip the birthday party, it doesn’t mean you can’t celebrate big. Here are some ideas to make sure your child’s birthday is special.